The Telangana State Election Commission on Tuesday released the notification for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections. The civic body polls will be held on 1 December.
The SEC announced that elections will be conducted through a ballot box, and the counting of votes will be held on 4 December and results will be announced the same day.
The nomination of the candidates will be accepted from 17 November, while the nomination deadline is 20 November.
State Election Commissioner Partha Sarathy said that 22 November is the last date for withdrawal of nominations. The GHMC has 150 wards, and polling will be held at 9,248 centres. Around 74 lakh electors will exercise their franchise in over 9,000 polling stations. Parthasarathy said that the reservation implemented in the 2016 GHMC elections will continue now. The mayor post is reserved for women general.
The BJP unit of Telangana took a serious objection to this announcement. They criticised the Telangana State Election Commission for working as a puppet in the hands of CM KCR and the TRS government.
BJP said, “Election Commission is an independent institution and is supposed to function without any external Intervention. However, Telangana State Election Commission seems to be running on the whims and fancies of KCR and his party TRS. BJP strongly denounces the method of functioning of SEC in Telangana.”
“Announcement of poll dates politically convenient to the TRS party has become a regular practice in the state. BJP will complain to the Central Election Commission over SEC’s questionable style of functioning. The current method of functioning jeopardizes the democratic spirit and integrity of the election process”, it added further.
On the other hand, AICC National spokesman Dasoju Sravan accused that without confirming the reservations, how come the SEC announced polls for Hyderabad.
He approached the High Court Of Telangana in this regard. Dasoju alleged that the State government was not implementing the Supreme Court directions issued in 2010 for taking up the exercise of identifying politically backward class people before holding the polls.